The President’s rejected nominee for Municipal Chief Executive position for the Ejisu Juaben Municipality in the Ashanti Region, Afrifa Yamoah Ponkoh, has blamed the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the region for his woes.
According him, most assembly members are NPP loyalists who have vowed to reject him. This is the second time Mr. Yamoah Ponkoh has failed to acquire the needed votes to take up the position.
The embattled former MCE polled 38 votes out of a total of 68 valid votes cast instead of at least 46 votes to secure the position.
Speaking to journalists after Tuesday’s voting, Mr. Yamoah Ponkoh also indicated that he is not perturbed by the orchestrations of the opposition NPP.
“Majority of the assembly members here in this assembly are NPP supporters and sympathizers, this thing I’m telling you is not a secret. They‘ve held a lot of meetings urging their members to vote against me. You can hear Wontumi [Ashanti Regional NPP Chairman] bragging that he will see to it that I don’t get the nod because they know that getting the nod will be something else to them,” he said.
Mr. Ponkoh also said he was aware that the government appointees in the municipality voted for him saying “if you look at the 47 elected who are NPP supporters and sympathizers, they refused to vote and it is very clear. So that is how politics in this country has gotten to,” he lamented.
“Me as an individual I’m not perturbed at all. I am a strong politician, an ardent supporter of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), a strong follower of the President. None of these things can stop me. I may decide not to even have interest in the bid again. They can use me in other fields and that one too can the NPP stop me from doing my normal politics? I will do whatever is expected of me and ensure that my President His Excellency gets the nod; our agenda to get one million votes in this region remains intact,” Yamoah Ponko added.
Observers have largely blamed Mr. Yamoah Ponkoh’s supposed poor human relations for his rejection.
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By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin